Vulcan in his usual Monday Guardian slot.
I don’t often solve Guardian puzzles on Mondays that I’m not blogging, so I may have a smaller sample than others on which to base this opinion, but this required more general knowledge than the usual Vulcan. Nothing too obscure, although younger solvers may not recognise Monica Seles. All fair and as is often the case on a Monday, over too quickly.
Thanks, Vulcan,
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GAME POINT |
This may be an advantage when one is in court (4,5)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring to a game point in tennis, which would occur after the first point is won after deuce (40-40). | ||
| 6 | CUSP |
Into mug, start to spit part of tooth (4)
|
| [start of] S(pit) into CUP (“mug”) | ||
| 8 | CARDINAL |
Churchman’s ticket home to Alabama (8)
|
| CARD (“ticket”) + IN (“home”) + AL (Alabama) | ||
| 9 | GROUPS |
Gatherings of heartless adults (6)
|
| [heartless] GRO(wn)UPS (“adults”) | ||
| 10 | HEALTH |
Left in high temperature, hot toast (6)
|
| L (left) in HEAT (“high temperature”) + H (hot) | ||
| 11 | IN THEORY |
Supposedly popular assumption (2,6)
|
| IN (“popular”) + THEORY (“assumption”) | ||
| 12 | TURPIN |
Dick parking in Italian city (6)
|
| P (parking) in TURIN (“Italian city”) | ||
| 15 | LOP-EARED |
Stride along and dare to jump about like a bloodhound (3-5)
|
| LOPE (“stride along”) + *(dare) [anag:to jump about] | ||
| 16 | WHOPPING |
Enormous wife going on one leg (8)
|
| W (wife) + HOPPING (“going on one leg”) | ||
| 19 | TIPTOP |
Excellent from end of tail to head (6)
|
| TIP (“end of tail”) to TOP (“head”) | ||
| 21 | PLANGENT |
Aircraft finally cancelled, chap sounding mournful (8)
|
| PLAN(e) (“aircraft”, finally canclled) + GENT (“chap”) | ||
| 22 | HALLOW |
Religiously set aside as hard to let (6)
|
| H (hard) + ALLOW (“to let”) | ||
| 24 | ATTLEE |
Follower of Churchill emerges from battle, exhausted (6)
|
| Hidden in [emerges from] “bATTLE Exhausted”
Clement Attlee succeeded Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the UK in 1945. |
||
| 25 | EXTENDED |
Holy book, short, was liable to be made longer (8)
|
| 26 | TROY |
Old city that attracted ten years of investment (4)
|
| The Trojan war lasted 10 years, according to “The Iliad” | ||
| 27 | SALAD DAYS |
Vegetarian period of Cleopatra’s youth (5,4)
|
| SALAD DAYS could be described as a “vegetarian period” and in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra says”My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood” while reflecting on her younger life. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GRACE |
The opposite of a long after-dinner speech? (5)
|
| GRACE is a short speech BEFORE dinner. | ||
| 2 | MUDFLAP |
Part of vehicle showing dirt – panic! (7)
|
| MUD (“dirt”) + FLAP (“panic”) | ||
| 3 | PUNCH |
Puppet hit the drink (5)
|
| Triple definition | ||
| 4 | ILL WILL |
I shall twice hide whiskey, out of spite (3,4)
|
| I’LL + I’LL (“I shall” twice) hiding W (whiskey, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 5 | TIGHT SPOT |
Difficulty getting undergarment to reach stomach (5,4)
|
| TIGHTS (“undergarment”) to reach POT (belly, so “stomach”) | ||
| 6 | CHOLERA |
Infectious disease? Arrest her, is the call (7)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [is the call] of COLLAR ‘ER (“arrest her”) | ||
| 7 | SUPERHERO |
Batman say may be out of our sphere (9)
|
| *(our sphere) [anag:may be out of] | ||
| 13 | UPHOLSTER |
Pad raised armrest? (9)
|
| UP (“raised”) + HOLSTER (support for a gun, so an “arm rest”) | ||
| 14 | NOISELESS |
Top-ranked tennis player, small and quiet (9)
|
| No.1 (“top-ranked”) + (Monica) SELES (former “tennis player”) + S (small) | ||
| 17 | PENALTY |
Ref’s decision may be fine (7)
|
| Double definiiton | ||
| 18 | GET WELL |
Understand our team will recover (3,4)
|
| GET (“understand”) + WE’LL (“our team will”) | ||
| 20 | POLENTA |
On plate, toyed with mush (7)
|
| *(on plate) [anag:toyed with] | ||
| 22 | HATED |
Felt revulsion for wrong order for death (5)
|
| *(death) [anag:wrong order for] | ||
| 23 | OMENS |
Premonitions women silently suppress (5)
|
| Hidden in [suppress] “wOMEN Silently” |
Quite enjoyable and Goldilocks difficulty. I couldn’t parse TROY, as my knowledge of history has holes in it. I thought the clue for GRACE might have been more at home in a straight, non-cryptic puzzle.
Is Batman a “superhero” or merely a rich vigilante with nice toys? Not that it matters.
I liked this as usual. UPHOLSTERED and NOISELESS stood out. I always enjoy a triple definition too. I had to check a couple of things, like the length of the Trojan siege and that meaning of investment, for 100% parsing.
A very good start to the week which leaves me time to do some exercise and earn some money.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick
I had to remind myself of the military definition of “investment” which Clambers gives as “a blockade”.
Came for confirmation of parsing for 25, but it’s not my day, it seems. I assume EX(odus) + TENDED (“was liable to”).
Aphid@4, correct. In fact “Ex.” has its own entry in Chambers…
Ex. (Bible)
abbrev
(the Book of) Exodus
Enjoyable puzzle, a good challenge.
New for me: CUSP of a tooth.
Thanks to Aphid@4 for clarifying the ‘holy book’ part of the wordplay. I’d forgotten to complete the parsing and was searching for the appropriate book from one of the many religions. Otherwise, an enjoyable and stiffer than usual challenge from Vulcan for a Monday. Was pleased to remember the quote from Antony and Cleopatra and liked PLANGENT and ATTLEE as well. Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.
Apologies for the missed parsing of EXTENDED, which seems to have disappeared for some reason. I’ll amend when I get a chance.
Monica Seles has appeared in cryptics twice inside a fortnight – albeit in the Independent on Sunday eight days ago – making a contribution to that day’s solution NOISELESSNESS. The ‘homophone police’ could well be on the prowl later remarking that, within CHOLERA, ‘er’ and ‘a’ are not really soundalikes. I personally prefer to follow the ‘pun’ labelling from within loonapick’s picking list: /homophone/pun/aural wordplay/.
Thank you Vulcan and loonapick.
Thanks for explaining SALAD DAYS, I knew the expression but was unaware of the Shakespeare connection.
Also Monica SELES…have the homophone police commented on CHOLERA yet? As a Londoner, it works for me,
Thanks both.
I was trying to find a joke about “Caesar salad” in the “salad days” clue…
A tougher offering from Vulcan today but most enjoyable. Thanks to Aphid @4 for explaining the EX in EXTENDED. I lazily just assumed it was a shortened TEXT. I liked ATTLEE, SUPERHERO, SALAD DAYS, NOISELESS and TURPIN.
Ta Vulcan & loonapick.
Is anyone else still being blicked from commenting in the chat?
Is anyone else still being blocked
from commenting in the chat?
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick
I thought the clue for IN THEORY was a bit weak, as there is little difference between “supposedly” and “assumption”.
UPHOLSTER favourite.
Early finish. I liked whopping. Thanks.
Monica Seles ( early 90’s) now long forgotten and Cleopatra (Shakespeare) doubtless, did nothing to help me, I simply filled ’em in using crossers.
Such a competent setter, many thanks, Vulcan.
Have no access to a dictionary this morning, but how doescard = ticket, please?
Great puzzle. Thanks Loonapick for the parsings of noiseless, salad days and troy. I thought the ex in extended may be the short form of the old testament book exodus, Not sure whether its appropriate to throw in a “dad” joke but here goes,,
BATMAN: Robin get the Batmobile.
ROBIN: Batman , the batmobile wont start.
BATMAN: Ring roadside assist on the Batphone and ask them to replace the battery.
ROBIN: Batman, what the tery?
I don’t have a problem with card = ticket, possibly because I grew up in the days when the man at the railway station sold you a nice little piece of pasteboard rather than a scruffy bit of paper with a QR code on it.
But it took me ages to appreciate the cleverness of HOLSTER being where you rest your (fire)arm. The concise and accurate triple definition of PUNCH was rather fine, too.
A further cleverness is that Monica Seles was famed for grunting loudly as she hit the ball, being in fact about as far from NOISELESS as you can get.
Excellent performance from Vulcan; and thank you loonapick for the blog.
NeilH@20😁
We enjoyed it
An enjoyable puzzle, though I’m not a fan of triple definitions (PUNCH). I’m pleased to find that my tentative parsing of TROY was correct. Thanks to Vulcan and Loonapick.
Silence grunting player getting in top seed’s head
(Filbert in Indy 1849)
As this appeared only a week ago, Vulcan’s idea seems equally original.
Thanks for the clear blog. Enjoyed the crossword but does hallow mean religiously set aside? I thought it just meant to reverence or make holy (hallowed be thy name).
Thanks, KVa, is silence the wrong part of speech for NOISELESS?
[ Fans of Paul (aka Punk) may enjoy a rare appearance by him in the Indi today ]
SueB @24 to hallow = to consecrate which Chambers defines as “To set apart for a holy use“ so I think it’s ok.
Thanks Jay
William@18
I remember cardplayers with a poor hand saying they just had a load of tram tickets.
PeterS @29 fascinating. Nice one.
Surely tennis players are on the court rather than in it?
I too had no idea where SALAD DAYS came from.
William@25
Sorry. My mistake. The solution was NOISELESSNESS.
Apart from being slightly hampered by having no interest in tennis, I didn’t have too much trouble with this. Didn’t spot the book as EXodus, or why a holster was an arm-rest, but I liked the neat triple def for PUNCH. Other favourites: ILL WILL and TURPIN.
Still not sure what part of a tooth is the CUSP, though I knew some of them are biCUSPids. Teeth are a sore point today as I have to visit the dentist to have a crown re-cemented: as they always do, it decided to come out on Friday night so I’ve spent the weekend with a very conspicuous gap.
poc@31: I think “on” the court, though more accurate, would have given the game away.
Hard to imagine myself a Goldilocks (per GDU@1 comment) but it felt about the right level of difficulty for me; in fact, a few answers that I guessed from the clues I had to double-check in Google as I didn’t know the words. Couldn’t parse TROY and was glad to learn here that my parsing of CHOLERA was correct.
For GAME POINT, I immediately thought of tennis so didn’t feel like there was much of a wordplay. But overall, a very enjoyable and satisfying solve, as always with Vulcan. Particularly liked PUNCH, HEALTH, CARDINAL, LOP EARED and GRACE. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick!
[PeterS @29: my family used to say they had “a hand like a foot”.]
Thanks Vulcan & loonapick, a fun solve.
I liked the emergent ATTLEE,
that the central column declares the ILL WILL GET WELL,
and that GAME POINT precedes CUSP.
And fwiw, the central horizontal lights spell out POOR
KVa @32: Ahh yes, that’s better. Nice clue.
I started rather slowly at the bottom and made my way up to the top, TIPTOP?
I thought the armrest for HOLSTER was a superb thought. I also liked LOP-EARED and CHOLERA, which was a Paulian pun, although it sounds OK to me. Not surprisingly, I thought the Dick in the clue for TURPIN was an idiot. I couldn’t find milpan in the dictionary, though.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
poc @31, tennis players could be in The Centre Court as well as being ‘on court’.
I always like tennis references, especially this time when I did the puzzle shortly after coming off a 3-sets-to-0 win. Today we got a double dose, NOISELESS one of my faves. As for GAME POINT, there is the aforementioned “oncongruity”; also, the blog’s definition is too narrow, since 40-0, 40-15 etc. are also game points.
Faves also included WHOPPING and UPHOLSTER. For TROY, took far too long looking for wordplay, till the drachma dropped.
Knowing next to nothing about tennis, GAME POINT was my last one in, requiring all the crossers, and I found SELES only after the fact.
Other than that, this was a nice steady Monday solve.
re Dr Whatson@40 advantage “may be” the game point, so no problem with that.
Pleasant puzzle.
I wrote in GAME POINT last night because it sounded like something I’d heard somewhere, but on googling it this morning I conclude that tennis scoring is much more complicated than it needs to be.
The surface for 10a HEALTH doesn’t make much sense. There are some lovely surfaces, though, for GROUPS, LOP-EARED and WHOPPING.
I do hope the blog appears for EXTENDED, though I think it’s been well explained. I too didn’t think of Exodus, just tried messing around with “text.”
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
I think a former world #1 tennis player from only about 25 years ago with approximately a gazillion major titles, who famously got stabbed by a crazed fan, thereby making headlines beyond the sports pages, is fairer game than, say, a random member of the 1966 England squad. (Sorry-not-sorry.) And they come up all the time.
[NeilH @20: of course these days most of the women tennis players grunt. I’ve heard the theory that they do it intentionally so the opponent can’t hear the ballstrike.]
Rosie@42 Yes, advantage is always game point for the player that has it (although they may not succeed). I was just a little puzzled why our fearless blogger made it sound as if that was the only point configuration that qualified, rather than one of several possibilities. Maybe others read it differently, in which case sorry I brought it up.
With reference to the volume of Seles’s grunting, Peter Ustinov said that he wouldn’t like to have the next hotel room on her wedding night.
Dr WhatsOn – my explanation was clumsy, apologies – I was trying to ensure that “advantage” in the clue was fully explained.
Almost too many Dicks to choose between for 12ac…
I’m off to York next week for their Ebor Racing Festival. On The Knavesmire, where Mr TURPIN met his fate on the end of a rope in 1739 as pre racing entertainment for the public.
Really liked UPHOLSTER and PLANGENT today…
Found this quite tricky for a Vulcan, it took me ages to see PUNCH and GRACE. Favourites were UPHOLSTER and ATTLEE.
Thanks Loonapick and Vulcan.
Didn’t understand the last three across clues but everything else went in quite smoothly. In fac, even they did with the definitions and checking letters.
Seemed in tune with the CDs today which was a big help.
Like TIGHT SPOT and NOISELESS
Thanks loonapick and Vulcan. Good Monday fun as always with V.
I had one minor gripe/query – maybe it’s with my vegetarian head on but “mush” as a definition for polenta seemed a bit harsh! In part because itself it’s a ground substance which can be cooked multiple ways, only one of which ends in a “mushy” consistency I think. Betraying the setter’s own opinions on this food stuff maybe!
A fair enjoyable Monday crossword.
Is there a parsing for ‘extended’ yet, I’m presuming ex(odus) plus tended.
Stuart @51
I’m with Vulcan on POLENTA. Yes, there are many ways to cook it, but I haven’t come across one that is any pleasure to eat!
Polenta that has been allowed to set and then fried or grilled shouldn’t be mushy.
In the clue to ILL-WILL are ‘out of’ simply link words? For me they don’t work very well as such.
Stuart@51 Another name for cooked corn cereal, at least the name I grew up with, is “corn meal mush.”
Flea@9, the homophone police may indeed object (although it sounds fine in my accent), but this is also a reference to an old joke: “Cholera? I barely knew ‘er!”, and other such phrases.
I rarely “do” Vulcan but I was most impressed – not least by the unusually few number of words used in the clues!
Enjoyable and fairly straightforward, though got held up in NE for a while by adding s to mug rather than cup and arriving at gums. Realised my mistake though once I got on top of the down clues.
@57 jamroll, that requires choler to be a verb. And I think ‘sadness’ (per The Collar, George Herbert) is not really a verb!
Tender, hardly know her so why should I tend her?
Thanks to Loonerpic (sic) for all assistance rendered.
I was pleased as PUNCH
All done. A lot of great clues! As William F P @58 points out, generally very concise, nothing too wordy
Okay, just to satisfy the expectations of the homophone police police, yes, 6d CHOLERA is an annoying non-rhotic soundalike. I wish setters would drop them. So there!